Overview Alexander Lawson, engraver, died in 1846, leaving behind a great quantity of his own and other artist's work. His daughters, Malvinia and Mary, constructed a scrapbook filled with these artworks, which they donated to the Academy. The scrapbook contains 532 prints, drawings, and watercolors illustrating natural history and scientific books or periodicals, including zoological, ornithological and medical illustrations, as well as technical illustrations and illustration for novels and...

Scope and Contents Birch, the son of an English painter, settled in Philadelphia about 1800, and became one of the better-known artists of this time, being especially famous for his marine subjects. This miniature of Alexander Lawson, the engraver, appears on the verso of the title-page of Lawson's biography of his daughter, Melvina. It is about four inches square, inscription reads: "Alexander Lawson by T. Birch." It has been reproduced facing page 48 in an article on Lawson's bird engravings in the Auk,...